


history notes

by ashotoflife



Category: SKAM Austin
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-02-29 17:41:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18783025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashotoflife/pseuds/ashotoflife
Summary: "never got to thank you for sending me your class notes when i was in the hospital""No reason to thank me. Mr. Kolker asked me to."some missing scenes





	1. grace

The tapping of Zoya’s pencil on the desk to her right set a soothing rhythm to doze off to and, in the last few minutes of class, Grace certainly found herself struggling to keep her eyes open. Mr. Kolker was saying something about Woodrow Wilson’s decision to enter WWI but the words weren’t really registering. That was until suddenly she heard him say “Williamson.” Even though Mr. Kolker said Daniel’s name in the same monotone Southern drawl he lectured in, it was like a neon sign being turned on and Grace was caught off guard by its brightness.

“I’m assuming most of you have noticed your star quarterback hasn’t been with us for awhile.”

Grace certainly wished she could say otherwise but it would be a lie to pretend that her gaze didn’t drift to his empty chair occasionally (read: often). He sat one row to her left, two seats ahead of hers. Or, at least, he usually did, but it had been nearly two weeks since he had been in class. It was AP U.S. History and open to both seniors and juniors so Grace had had the misfortune of winding up in a class with him, something she certainly hadn’t anticipated when she signed up for mostly AP courses this year. 

“Since Mr. Williamson is in the hospital, I was hoping a kindred spirit amongst you wouldn’t mind lending me your notes so I can pass them along and he doesn’t fall too far behind” Mr. Kolker asked, gazing at them expectantly.

The rumors about Daniel’s absence and apparent stay at the hospital had been flying around the school. Kelsey probably coming up with most of them. At least, that seemed like all Kelsey did these past few days- debate what must’ve happened to Daniel to cause him to miss out on one of the biggest games of the season. Grace tuned her out mostly but she couldn’t feasibly block out all of the rumor mill. The students seemed particularly fascinated with the possibility that Daniel Williamson was a steroid junkie and blew up his arm by taking too many. That one seemed kind of ludicrous to Grace, not that she cared. Lately, apathy’s been the name of the game and Kelsey was getting increasingly impatient with her. She just hadn’t felt particularly compelled to go to the football games or get off her couch on Friday nights for the football/dance team parties these past two weeks. The fact that Daniel wasn’t at them had nothing to do with it- she was busy. Very busy.

The bell rang suddenly and a commotion of teenagers gathering their things and rushing out the door made it difficult for Mr. Kolker to speak over them.

“Is no one willing to part with their notes? They will be returned promptly I assure you.”

Grace took her time packing her things up and said a quick ‘bye’ to Zoya who had to hurry to the other side of the building for Precalc, which Grace didn’t have until the afternoon. Tossing her backpack over her shoulder and clutching her binder to her chest, Grace walked over to Mr. Kolker’s desk who was rummaging through the mess of sheets splayed across the desktop while the remaining students filtered out of the classroom.

“Mr. Kolker?” Grace said, her voice quiet and almost shy at the prospect of what she was about to do. She wasn’t even quite sure why she was doing it. Maybe she felt bad for her teacher who seemed a bit frazzled. Maybe she knew Mr. Kolker would likely have asked her anyway if no one else volunteered them. Maybe, well, maybe a part of her wished she could know how Daniel was doing or, at the very least, let him know she was thinking of him. But that was a very small, tiny, infinitesimal part of her and if you ask she would deny it right, left, and sideways.

“Yes, Ms. Olsen” Mr. Kolker looked down at her, through his smudged glass.

“Um. I, uh, I don’t really need my notes right now so you can lend them to Daniel.” She found herself saying his name with care, like one would when trying out a new word.

“Oh, great! Thank you so much. You’re such an excellent student; he’ll be lucky to receive them.” Mr. Kolker smiled down at her. “You know I was going to ask you anyway, if no one else offered.”

Grace offered up an indulgent smile for his praises and then opened up the dark binder she’d been clutching and took out the last few weeks’ notes (and maybe threw in the week before he’d left too, she’d noticed he had seemed rather distracted that week) from the rings.

“Here you go” she said handing them to him. Mr. Kolker took the pages of loose leaf from her.

“I’m sure he’ll be quite pleased to receive these.”

Suddenly an image of Daniel with his messy brown hair studying them with that serious expression he got every once in a while in class popped into Grace’s head and her lips quirked up at the thought but she quickly altered her expression to one of neutral politeness. Heaving her backpack up higher on her shoulder she turned and headed towards the door but just as she pushed down the handle, she looked back at Mr. Kolker before she lost the nerve.

“Um, will you, um, let me know how he’s doing?” She asked her eyes shifting uneasily, surprising herself with her curiosity. Mr. Kolker looked up at her though with a knowing (and, therefore, worrying) look.

“Of course, Grace.”

“Thanks” Grace said quickly before turning and rushing out the door.


	2. daniel

Daniel Williamson was having a shit day.

To be fair, Daniel had been having a lot of shitty days as of late, but this one seemed particularly out to get him. Daniel was quite used to his family not being around so when they did make an appearance, it was unexpected and, most often, unwelcome. His mum and brother had come to see him this morning. Not at the same time, of course, because God forbid his family was ever actually in a room together.

Daniel had been in the hospital for two weeks. His mother hadn’t visited since he was admitted. His brother showed up only today. And his father hadn’t come to see him period. He’d gotten one hell of a “feel well soon” text though. To be blunt, after the headache that was today, he really wouldn’t have minded if his mother and brother had also left it at a text message. They were both gone, thankfully. His mum had come to say she did it and his brother had come to be an ass.

What else was new?

But now he had a splitting migraine and his arm hurt like a bitch. And for the millionth time since he’d been told he might have to get it amputated when he was admitted, he cursed himself for being _so damn stupid_. Fortunately, he got to keep his arm but he’d been lying on a hard bed in a bright room cut off from his friends and forced to eat green jello for the last two weeks so sue him if he wasn’t feeling particularly lucky right now. Since his visiting hours had been taken up by his mother and brother, he hadn’t gotten to see his friends hence pity party being the mood of the hour.

Daniel was staring up at the ceiling, a Cowboys game on the TV in the corner was filling the emptiness but he wasn’t paying much mind to it, when the door handle suddenly clicked. Looking over to the door, Daniel saw Jo sneaking in, checking over his shoulder as he entered the room.

“Dude-”

“Shhh!” Jo said gesturing for Daniel to be quiet before offering him up a shit eating grin. Daniel rolled his eyes but couldn’t stop a tired smile from lighting up his face. His migraine all but forgotten about. Jo headed over and hopped up onto the foot of the hospital bed.

“My boy! How you been bud?”

“What are you even doing here? If the nurse finds out, you’re screwed man.”

“Oh Sheila? Don’t worry about her, she’s preoccupied” Jo said with way too much glee to mean anything good.

“You know what, I don’t wanna know” Daniel said as he used his good arm to push himself up on the bed.

“How was the fam? Ya miss me?” Jo asked while reaching into his backpack which had been slung over his shoulder pulling out a pack of twizzlers. Daniel yanked the package out of his hands, making him pout.

“The usual” Daniel replied to the first question as he struggled to open the plastic. Jo watched him for a bemused second but quickly became irritated.

“You look like a fucking dumbass, dude, let me open it.” Jo said with exasperation. Daniel glared daggers but tossed the bag back in his face. “Bro, you would not believe Coach in football practice today. I swear he gets off on our misery” Jo said as he tore into the plastic wrapping with no finesse, handing Daniel a twizzler before reaching for one himself and tearing a piece off with his teeth. “I’m not joking. Like, for real, that guy probably jacks off in the shower while thinking about new forms of torture. He’s sick” Jo said wagging his half-eaten twizzler in Daniel’s face for emphasis. “Sick I tell you. Truly _fucked_ in the head.” Jo began eating the candy with a vigour that Daniel had only ever seen Jo capable of. Daniel smiled softly at his friend’s presence. Relieved by what felt astoundingly like normalcy. There had been nothing comforting and normal about his day thus far. Seeing his brother or mother on any day was weird, seeing them on the same day? Kinda felt like God was laughing at him at this point. But this, right here- an illicit meeting with Jo and a bag of twizzlers, talking about their Coach’s confused sexual urges- this felt right.

“Maybe I should be glad I’m in this hospital bed” Daniel replied with a slight chuckle. Jo widened his eyes and nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, dude, you don’t realize how good you have it.”

“Oh, yeah? I’m living the good life?” Daniel couldn’t help but look at him incredulously. Jo leaned back against the footboard, kicking his legs up onto the bed, his dirty sneakers leaving a noticeable mark on the pale blue sheets.

“Oh yeah for sure. Look you got 24/7 football and you don’t have to break a sweat for it, an endless supply of bombass jello” Jo said looking pointedly at the empty cup on Daniel’s bedside table. “Not to mention, Sheila is seriously hot.” Daniel barked out a laugh.

“Bro, Sheila’s like 40, with kids” Daniel responded, looking at his dumbass friend with wonder.

“So? I’d do her.” Jo responded flippantly reaching for another twizzler. The bag was now perched on Daniel’s blanketed kneecaps. Daniel rubbed at his eyes and shook his head at his friend’s idiocy. “Hey, so, as your knight in shining armor-”

“I already don’t like where this is going” Daniel shot back.

“Oh you will.” Jo said with a teasing smile. Daniel’s brows furrowed in confusion. “I come bearing more gifts.” Jo digged into his bag as Daniel looked on dubiously and pulled out a tattered black folder and tossed it onto his friend’s lap. Daniel cautiously looked at the folder before gingerly picking it up and opening it to see what had to be at least twenty pages of handwritten-

“APUSH notes?” Daniel asked in confusion. “You brought me class notes.”

“Yup” Jo responded with a weirdly pleased smirk.

“Uh, thanks” Daniel chuckled at Jo’s odd self-satisfaction. Daniel looked back down at the notes and pulled them out of the folder. “I mean, thanks for bringing them but I don’t get why you’re looking at me like you just-” Daniel’s brows furrowed even further suddenly as he registered the neat, girlish script and slightly excessive use of colorful highlighters. “Who wrote these?”

“Wasn’t me.”

“Oh no, really Jo? I had no idea since you don’t fucking take AP history” Daniel deadpanned but Jo just kept smirking. Daniel didn’t even know why he was curious. Mr. Kolker obviously asked one of the girls in his class to lend him their notes. No big deal. But there was something about the density of them, color key in the right hand corner, the little notes to self in the margins- _look into Carrie Chapman Catt_ and _ask Poonam about joining the newspaper_. Before Daniel could even voice the thought in his head, Jo affirmed his burgeoning theory.

“They’re Grace’s. Mr. Kolker said she offered them up herself” Jo full-on smirked. Daniel’s heart skipped a beat but, by some sheer miracle, he managed to keep a straight face and gave only a slight nod of acknowledgment. He tucked them back into the folder pocket, tearing his eyes away from her neat script and feigning disinterest to an almost comical degree.

“You know-” Jo started, “for a girl who claims to hate you- sending you class notes seems like a pretty cool thing to do.” Daniel looked down at the folder again but didn’t say anything. “I don’t know bro. I’m not good at this romantic shit-” which had Daniel rolling his eyes “but I don’t know, kinda seems like a gesture.” A warmth spread through Daniel and suddenly he couldn’t help the softest of smiles from gracing his lips before he forced it back down.

“I told you before Jo. She has a boyfriend” Daniel muttered, trying to fight the blush that was encroaching on his cheeks.

“Whatever man. Doesn’t mean anything.” This time, Daniel’s glare was a little sharper and Jo raised his hands in a placating gesture. Daniel knew Jo wasn’t a one-girl-kinda-guy but that wasn’t an excuse to cheat on people. And Jo knew that cheating was touchy subject for Daniel considering his mother’s affairs. “Kidding” Jo offered, not very convincingly. Jo reached for another twizzler as he maneuvered his legs off the bed and tossed his backpack onto his shoulder. “I gotta get home. Ma’s making enchiladas.”

“Jealous. I miss Frida’s cooking” Daniel groaned with self pity dropping his head back against the pillow behind him.

“I’ll bring you one tomorrow” Jo smiled and Daniel knew he meant it. When Jo promised to show up, he was always there. Jo grabbed two more twizzlers from the bag before heading towards the door and opening it a crack, peering out in the hallway to see if there was anyone coming. When he saw the coast was clear he turned back to Daniel with an impish grin. “See you later, bro.”

“Bye” Daniel called out softly right before Jo ducked out.

Daniel smiled to himself for a moment, feeling much better than he had before Jo showed up. He reached for another twizzler before he reopened the folder. He didn’t have anything going on so might as well try to catch up in history, right?

Each page was dated because of fucking course she dates every page of her notes and she periodically rewrote the color key throughout the pages.  _Such a loser_ , Daniel thought. _But a cute loser_.

The notes went back to the week before he’d been admitted to the hospital. He’d been fairly out of it that week and a part of Daniel wondered if she noticed. If she noticed him at all. Since she was _all_ he noticed. Daniel thumbed through the copious pages of notes, slightly impressed by her attention to detail. Did Mr. Kolker actually say this much stuff during lecture? Because if he did, Daniel was suddenly a little worried about the test they had coming up. As Daniel flipped through the pages, he found his attention drawn to the margins. Grace clearly got distracted too. There were little hearts up and down the notes for November 7th. She’d colored them in with her pink and yellow highlighter, not a trace of ink outside the drawn hearts. _Even when she doodles she’s perfect._ Daniel traced the lines with the tip of his finger, weirdly mesmerized by these indications of Grace’s presence. The notes were one thing, but there was something about knowing what she doodles when she’s bored that made him smile. Daniel continued to flip through the pages stopping anytime he saw she had gotten distracted.

One page in particular caught his attention. November 16th. That was the night of the big game he’d missed. His replacement QB apparently couldn’t handle the pressure and the guys had tanked. Daniel felt a lot of guilt over that one. But the date wasn’t really what caught his attention. No, it was the little numbers. Over and over Grace had written #2, sometimes with a little heart around it. Daniel told himself that it had to be coincidence. Grace probably didn’t even know his jersey number.

But then, suddenly, his attention was caught by a...

mistake?

Grace Olsen made a mistake? At the bottom of the page two words had been written in dark blue ink but then haphazardly scribbled over. It was smushed along the edge of the page as if trying its very best not to draw any attention to itself but Daniel was able to make it out fairly easily nonetheless. His jaw dropped and eyes bugged out.

_Grace Williamson._

Daniel felt as if somebody had reached inside his chest and squeezed his heart.

Yes, it had been crossed through several times, but it was there. Undeniably. _Grace Williamson._ In dark blue ink with a fucking heart above the two ‘i’s in his last name. _Her last name._

The confusion on Daniel’s face had been replaced by surprised recognition and was now slowly morphing into something blinding. Effervescent. A smile so wide and full of delight it would take your breath away. It was like someone had run a live current through him and suddenly all he could see was her. Her laughing with her friends, her staring him down in the school yard, her voice ringing through the classroom as she asked her millionth question that period much to the class’s annoyance. Not that Daniel ever minded. He took whatever he could get of her. But now there was a new image. Grace with her dark brown curls shrouding her pretty face as she bent over her notes, etching his last name behind her first with all the care and attention she devoted to everything else. _Fuck._ That certainly wasn’t an image Daniel needed to add to his collection but it was helpless now. Burned into his brain. Daniel had always figured Grace was the kind of girl who protested the notion that people belong to people and, once upon a time, he might've also called that BS. But ever since that first day on the field with her staring up at with him, chin tilted in defiance and her brilliant blue eyes trained on his with all the confidence in the world, he just knew.

He knew exactly where Grace belonged.

And, maybe, just maybe, Grace knew it too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kept suggesting this idea to fic writers and no one was biting so I wrote it myself. I hope you enjoyed! Also, after going back through the bouldin beat instagram I realize Grace had actually joined the paper before the school year even started but I'm not gonna change that bit (her margin notes) cuz I like the implication that she was looking for something to do in lieu of dance since Daniel was no longer in commission and gonna be at the games. HOWEVER, Grace joining the paper before the school year even started totally supports my theory that she stopped going to the football games and parties because Daniel was in the hospital and wouldn't be at them since when Kelsey brought it up Grace claimed it was because of the paper but hun you were doing the paper this whole time and you just suddenly got super busy with it and couldn't make the games? I don't think so. Grace definitely lost interest in the dance team when she couldn't use it as an excuse to guilty pleasure stare at Daniel playing football. Anyway, can you tell I'm obsessed lol?


End file.
